The Plaid Pladd

I know you haven’t been able to contain yourself, wondering what my Super Secret 7th Goal was for this year, and I can finally tell you! I came up with the idea exactly one year ago today, 12/27/12, my parents’ 29th wedding anniversary. I thought, “That means next year will be 30! That’s a big deal! I need to do something.” And somehow I decided that something was to make a giant ass quilt.

It might not look super giant, but in work hours it’s the size of a house

My mom is always making quilts for people, so I figured it was time someone made one for her. I started January 2nd, because I knew it would take me forever. It pretty much did, since I basically had to teach myself how to do it along the way. The library helped, and some Internet tutorials too. Here I am maybe four or five months in, after finally completing the top:

And Steven helped… me move the furniture

At this point Rob was like “You’re done! Yay!” Not even close, my friend. A quilt is made of a sandwich: the fancy quilt top I spent some months sewing together, the batting that makes it warm and bulky, and the backing fabric. There are many methods to get those three to stick together, but I chose hand quilting because I’m hardcore. That took a further six months.

The reason the quilt top took so long to complete was the embroidery I did to make it personal (hardcore). Close ups:

My mom is a math teacher, of course

Epic first date!!!

True to life replica of my dad’s submarine

My mom!!!

My dad!!

Thomas!!

Whatever

My dad’s home!

There are some others too that Steven didn’t take pictures of during the process because 15 embroidery squares is a lot. Anyway, I finished just before Thanksgiving!

My mom kind of freaked out

And my dad’s just like “Okay”

A pretty good gift!

Anyway, making quilts is hard, and I don’t think I’ll be doing it again anytime soon.

Credits:
This book
This tutorial and this one
This library